Genre: Historical, Western, Steampunk, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
Dundee
I woke up in a jail cell after a saloon fight which the handsome sherrif said was my fault. My punishment is something called Community Service. It doesn’t mean what I thought it did.
Russell
Dundee is a cheat and a liar. And a thief, he’s stolen my heart. How can I compete for his affection against the flirty inventor with a steam powered vehicle who has just arrived in town?
The Review
The Gambler’s Community Service is an amusing and entertaining short read. It’s a sort of low key gay-friendly steampunk cowboy tale that’s more cowboy than steampunk.
The steampunk element is the brief encounter with an inventor and his steam powered truck and his clockwork dog. Now the dog is cute and stays throughout, so that’s good.
Dundee MacDonald is the gambler in question, and the other character of import is Sheriff Russell Smith. Dundee is not very good at cheating at poker, but he does seem to keep doing it, and that brings him into contact with the law – and Russell.
Russell is attracted to bad boys even though it means his luck at romance is lacking, but that changes when he gives Dundee community service. Strangely paid community service, but what the heck.
A fun read that had the potential for being more interesting, but went for a nice big bath instead for Dundee to soak in.
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.